A poll of 1,000 parents in the UK revealed that by the age of nine their child had their own email account, sent their first text message, and were allowed a computer in the bedroom.
On average, British children around the age of nine had been allowed to surf the net without adult supervision despite possible online threats.
By the age of 10 the average child had joined a social networking site, even though sites like Facebook don’t allow children to join before the age of 13.
"Many parents think their child is safe if they are in the family home, but if they’re online – especially if they’re unsupervised or on a computer in their bedroom – then they are exposed to threats just as severe and real as those in the real world," says Quinton Watts, security expert at ESET UK.
The ESET UK study found that children are using the internet for the first time at the age of seven, a year before the average child has made their first mobile phone call.
"Our research shows just how fast children are growing up in our technology-saturated world," says Watts. "They are now used to having access to everything at the click of a button, even at a very young age, before they’ve gone through some of the rites of passage moments we remember from our own childhood. It underlines the need for parents to make online safety a top priority as their kids grow up."
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